[ad_1]
U.S. District Judge Sheryl H. Lipman has acquitted Tennessee State Sen. Katrina Robinson of two counts of wire fraud but left two of her four counts remaining.
Robinson was found guilty in a jury trial in September 2021 of the four counts of wire fraud in connection with her leadership and ownership of The Healthcare Institute, a nursing school, and its management of funds received under a Health Resources and Services Administration grant.
The new order, issued Thursday, granted Robinson her request to acquit her of charges that she submitted annual performance reports in the years 2017-18 and 2018-19 to HRSA that contained fraudulent misinterpretations of The Healthcare Institute’s operations in furtherance of a scheme to defraud HRSA.
However, the judge denied Robinson’s motion to acquit her of the two other counts, which charged Robinson with improperly using HRSA grant funds to pay for two personal expenditures related to her wedding in furtherance of a scheme to defraud HRSA. One was to a caterer, the other to a makeup artist. The expenses totaled less than $3,500.
In her testimony at trial, Robinson said that her now-former husband later deposited cash back into the account to offset those expenses.
Katrina Robinson:Case against Tennessee state senator, codefendants dismissed following pre-trial diversion
Katrina Robinson:Tennessee state senator found guilty in federal fraud trial
But in an email exchange with a manager charged with processing THI’s transactions, Robinson appeared to describe the charges as “purchases for our patient education event [that] … that should be under our ADRD funds for grant accounting purchases,” according to the court ruling.
Robinson, 40, was initially accused by the government of misusing $600,000 in federal funding meant for scholarships. Instead, prosecutors said, some of the federal funding was used for personal expenses associated with Robinson’s wedding, a Jeep for her daughter, designer handbags and other items.
At the trial, Lipman granted a motion from the defense to acquit Robinson on 15 of 20 federal charges of fraud and embezzlement.
Katherine Burgess covers county government and religion. She can be reached at katherine.burgess@commercialappeal.com, 901-529-2799 or followed on Twitter @kathsburgess.
[ad_2]
Source link
